Working with scientists, climate change experts, and archaeologists, the historian Michael McCormick is constructing the most detailed historical record to date on European climate, offering unprecedented insight into the impact climate shifts had on ancient civilizations. Michael has a long-standing interest in the many factors that influenced human evolution. He now chairs Harvard’s university-wide Initiative for the Science of the Human Past, which brings together geneticists, archaeological scientists, climatologists, environmental, computer and information scientists, humanists, and social scientists to explore human history. His lecture at AAR, “The Fall of the Roman Empire: How Should We Study It in the 21st Century?,” will draw on this interdisciplinary approach to reevaluate the fall of Rome. Using advanced scientific techniques and digital practices, McCormick has unearthed new findings, including archaeological evidence of a mass death.

McCormick’s many publications include his award-winning book Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, AD 300–900 (2001) and his most recent book Charlemagne’s Survey of the Holy Land: Wealth, Personnel, and Buildings of a Mediterranean Church between Antiquity and the Middle Ages(2011).